Band's Experience Dictates Direction

The controversy has been ongoing -- about how country-pop is too pop for traditionalists and too country for rock lovers. But what about country-pop's real success stories? What about Sawyer Brown?

The group's five musicians, all in their 20s, consider their roots to be country. Keyboardist Gregg Hubbard and singer-guitarist Mark Miller grew up in Apopka. Guitarist-fiddler Bobby Randall and bassist Jim Scholten are from Midland, Mich., and drummer Joe Smyth is from Westbrook, Maine. They've all heard country music for most of their lives.

But the band members, who will be in Orlando Wednesday for a concert with Kenny Rogers and Lee Greenwood, are quick to point out that they are also products of the pop-music generation. Their songs and performances -- country- tinged and full of youthful exuberance -- reflect that.

''We don't do any cheating or drinking songs because that's not the way we are,'' Hubbard said by telephone from a tour stop in Brownwood, Texas.

''You know, nobody's going to buy that kind of stuff off somebody in their mid-20s anyway. That's just not the way we live, so we don't sing about it.'' Not that Sawyer Brown's members have exactly missed life in the real world. Less than two years ago, the band was getting a wearying dose of the roadwork that accompanies many a group's struggle to fame and a major-label recording contract.

The group originally formed in 1981 to back country singer Don King. When King's tour ended, the five musicians stayed together, adopted the name Sawyer Brown (after a Nashville street) and proceeded to play bars and nightclubs -- and more bars and nightclubs.

An audition for a preliminary contest for Star Search, the nationally syndicated TV talent show, changed the nature of the struggle. In February 1984, after 12 straight weeks of Star Search contests, Sawyer Brown took first place and $100,000 in prize money for its performance of ''Going Back to Indiana.'' The exposure led to a recording contract with Capitol and a debut album, Sawyer Brown.

Since then, the trick has been to sustain the momentum. Sawyer Brown seems to be up to it. Guitarist Miller was once quoted as saying that the lighter aspects of the band's energetic and catchy pop are vital to Sawyer Brown's appeal. ''Too many people have gotten into music as art,'' Miller said. ''I don't want to cut art. I want to cut hit records.''

And so it goes. Sawyer Brown has sold more than 220,000 copies and is now at the No. 3 spot on Billboard's country-albums chart. The group's first two singles -- ''Leona'' and ''Step That Step'' -- have done exceptionally well (the latter hitting No. 1 on the country chart). A third single, ''Used to Blue,'' has taken only three weeks to climb into the No. 43 spot on the country-singles chart. The group has appeared on Merv Griffin, Solid Gold and Hee Haw and has spent the past several months headlining its own shows and opening concerts for Kenny Rogers.

''Somehow we draw more when we're with Kenny,'' Hubbard said. ''I don't know what the deal is.''

Sawyer Brown is, of course, thankful for the exposure and, just as important, for Rogers' personal encouragement. ''I've never met a nicer man or a more helpful man in the business,'' Bobby Randall has said of Rogers. ''He told us that when he was coming up, he was treated so badly that he swore that if he made it, he would never treat an opening act like he was treated.''

Another man who has helped Sawyer Brown is Randy Scruggs, son of banjo player Earl and producer of Sawyer Brown's debut album and recently recorded follow-up, due out in late September. Scruggs, Hubbard said, is responsible for transferring Sawyer Brown's essential stage energy to vinyl.

''We were familiar with Randy's work and we wanted someone who wasn't going to try to make us fit into that real slick Nashville kind of sound,'' Hubbard said. ''Randy got a real good grasp of what our live sound was and then took us into the studio and was able to capture that on tape, which is something we had not had a lot of success with with previous producers.''

Hubbard added, however, that you really have to see the members of Sawyer Brown in concert to know them: ''Our stuff is fun to listen to and real upbeat, but we do more on stage than, you know, just stand there and play the guitar. It's got a lot more energy than that.''